


"It's that stuff that's everywhere."

by Waxwing



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Desert Bluffs, Hormones, M/M, Mad Science, Medical Experimentation, Medical Kink, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-06
Updated: 2014-01-04
Packaged: 2017-12-25 19:03:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/956586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waxwing/pseuds/Waxwing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wildly extrapolated Desert Bluffs head cannon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Corpse Blindness

Kevin possessed what the boys in the lab had began jokingly referring to as “corpse blindness”, though that wasn't really an appropriate term since it wasn’t as though he couldn't see dead bodies. It would have been more accurate to say that his mind was simply incapable of processing death. In Strex Corp’s quest to bio engineer the perfect soldier they had been able to create humanoid organisms which could be conditioned to be unwavering loyal to their overseers, which Kevin certainly was, which were inhumanely strong and fast, which Kevin certainly was, and which had a strong instinctive impulse to brutally and mercilessly destroy that which they saw as being at odds with the wishes of those they served, here was where Kevin differed. In his neutral state he was relentlessly cheerful and good natured as well as entirely incapable of malice. Violence simply did not exist for him and as a result the effects of violence (i.e. death) did not either. Kevin was incapable of seeing the world as anything other than a bright and kind place and so anything that did not fit that world view seemed to simply be edited out of his memory. 

When he saw one person enacting violence on another he tended to subconsciously “rewrite” the events into something that fit his “bright and kind” worldview. When they were first testing the extent of this they had had two other “citizens” of Desert Bluffs brought into the lab and instructed one of them to kill the other (which was something they would never do on their own but would gleefully do if instructed to by an overseer) in front of Kevin. Kevin had shown no reaction at the time and later, when asked to describe what he’d seen in the lab that day, he had said that the two had hugged each other. The attending scientists had snickered briefly before assuring Kevin that he’d done a very good job of accurately recounting the events. After that they’d started jokingly referring to a violent attack as a “hug”, Kevin seemed to provide them no end of amusement. 

They eventually discovered that, though Kevin could not process violence consciously, he was not entirely useless as a weapon. After much trial and error they had discovered that certain stimuli, among them sound played at a certain pitch that only Kevin seemed able to hear, would cause Kevin to go into violent fits. They had verified this by placing Kevin in a bullet proof, sound proof glass chamber with one of the many convicts that Stex Corp employed, his name was Michael. At first Kevin had pleasantly chatted with Michael, seeming not to notice the other man’s discomfort at being locked in a box with one of Strex Corp’s “monsters”, but when they’d piped that certain specific pitch in over speakers Kevin had gone silent then looked as though he was in pain and then viciously fallen on Michael. He had broken the arm that the other man put up in self defense as though it were made of balsa wood and then torn into his stomach, eating the entrails as he scooped them out with his hands. Once the sound was cut Kevin, seeming to instantly snap out of his frenzy, looked briefly confused then wiped his mouth on his sleeve and asked where Michael had gone. 

When told to look around the chamber and make absolutely sure he didn't see Michael anywhere Kevin did so and then cheerfully confirmed “nope, just me.” When directly ask what the thing on the floor next to him was Kevin looked down at Michael's mangled body with a quizzical expression and and simply said “I’m not sure.” When asked what the substance on his hands was Kevin gave a relieved smile at finally being asked a question he could answer and said “well, that’s blood” and then chuckled as though it were an amusingly obvious question. When asked where the blood came from Kevin pointed at the body and stated matter of factly “probably from that...I mean, it does seem to be full of blood.” In a last ditch effort to see if Kevin could connect the dots one of the scientists asked him what blood was, Kevin’s expression faltered and for a second he seemed to be thinking but then went on confidently “it’s that stuff that’s everywhere.” At that the attending scientists could only agree, as blood was in fact everywhere in Desert Bluffs. 

They repeated the experiment over and over again to be sure and every time the result was the same, a convict would be lead into the chamber, Kevin would be delighted to meet a “new friend”, the two would chat for a few minutes, the tone would be piped in over the speakers, Kevin would go into a frenzy, the tone would stop, Kevin would wonder where his friend had gone and be completely unable to make any connection between the person he’d been speaking to and the eviscerated body at his feet. It seemed that Kevin’s mind was unable grasp that people could die and then become corpses. When asked what he could remember from before his most recent “friend” had mysteriously disappeared Kevin said only that they had been talking and then he’d gotten a headache and then after the headache went away he’d found himself alone in the chamber. When one of the scientist (a Dr. Martin Phrane) who seemed to be frustrated with Kevin’s inability to process something so simple directly told him that he had killed them all, Kevin only stared at him blankly and then gave a bemused smile, as though he thought the man was trying to play some sort of trick on him. The project leader then instructed the security officers, which were always on hand during potentially dangerous experiments, to bind Dr. Phrane’s hands and put him into the chamber. The experiment was then repeated, the results were the same. 

The project leader was 42 year old Dr. Sebastian Sanchez Vicario who had been invited to work for Strex Corp five years ago and in that time had become one of their most valued employees for his visionary outside-the-box approach to genetic engineering. Before coming to Strex Corp he had worked for a company that’s primary focus was the creation of more efficient farm animals, he had found the work limiting and under stimulating and had therefore been forced to occupy his intellect with various side projects. He had been quite content working to pay the bills during the day and pouring his passion into his little “hobbies” at night, but when his bosses finally found out exactly what he’d been doing in his spare time and terms like “misappropriation of company funds”, “ethics violation” and (considerably more melodramatic) “sin against nature” and “mad scientist” started to get bandied about, Sebastian decided that he should take his leave and seek out employment somewhere that he would be more appreciated. He had unfortunately been forced to terminate his side project (she had been a Russian prostitute named Nadia when he’d found her but, after many chemical alterations to her DNA, she had become much, much more.) He had buried her body in a lovely wooded grove only six miles from his former place of employment before beating a hasty retreat to Puerto Rico to wait until the authorities, whom his former employers had ungraciously sicked on him, gave up the search. A year later Strex Corp had found him (which he had to commend them on as at the time he’d been living in a small fishing village under an assumed name), told him that they’d found Nadia and offered him a salaried position which he had eagerly accepted. The fact that they’d threatened to turn him in if he did not accept had factored only moderately in his decision. 

The laboratory itself was a massive, sprawling, underground structure larger than the town beneath which it lay, the only visible part of it being the corporate headquarters which was the only skyscraper in the small community of Desert Bluffs. The town itself had been erected some time after the lab was built as a place to house the products of Strex Corp’s genetic experiments, it was given a name as an afterthought years after it was built. The scientists lived in a luxury apartment building on the same grounds as the corporate headquarters, the grounds were surrounded by a barbed wire topped, cement wall to ensure that none of the towns “citizens” could get in unless they were given proper security clearance. Desert Bluffs itself, built to mimic an actual town in as many respects as possible, contained private dwellings (the rent for which was paid to Strex Corp), shops and restaurants (all of which were owned by Strex Corp), a school (where the specimens were programmed) and, of course, the radio station (from which nothing could be broadcast unless it was first approved by the higher-ups at Strex Corp.) The entire town was surrounded by a second barbed wire topped, cement wall with only one entrance and one exit which were beside each other and kept carefully guarded to ensure that none of the citizens could leave unless they had been given proper permission and assigned an armed escort (for their protection, of course.) Once a month a buss full of people that Strex Corp had procured from god knows where would be brought into town and released in random locations and the citizens would be encouraged to “purge the outsiders”, the proceedings would be filmed by the hidden cameras placed around the town so that the companies financial backers (the names of whom only the Stex Corp’s highest ranking employees were privileged to know) could see what they were paying for in action. 

Strex Corp turned out to be a god send to Sebastian. Sure, he had to live in a maximum security compound in the middle of the desert and, sure, he was made well aware that he could be “terminated” should he ever become lax in his job performance or become a hindrance rather than an asset, but never before had he been allowed such creative freedom in his work. If he thought that making certain adjustments to a specimen’s genetic makeup would cause it to turn out faster or stronger and to grow sharper claws or sharper teeth or an extra set of limbs he could go ahead and try it. If it worked he was given appropriate praise by his superiors, if it didn't work and resulted in a specimen that did not meet Strex Corp’s standards, the specimen was scrapped and he was told to make the necessary adjustments and try again. True, too many failures could lead to punishment, but his efforts rarely failed to at least produce intriguing results if not necessarily the results specifically intended. Since they had perfected a process for producing limitless templates from already existing genetic material, there was no need to worry about wasting specimens and new ones could even be programmed with the memories of those they were made to replace so not even the other “citizens” would notice the original was gone, they may notice physical changes (like, for instance, a third eye or an extra mouth) but that sort of thing was common place in Desert Bluffs. Yes, Sebastian had indeed found a sort of scientific haven here in the middle of the desert, free from the restraints of petty legalities and issues of ethics. Because of this he felt less and less inclined to restrain what mainstream society would have deemed inappropriate thoughts, which is why he frequently found himself unabashedly entertaining some very... ‘unethical’ thoughts about Kevin.


	2. "Let me."

He had at first recoiled from those thoughts but after reminding himself that he was no longer governed by arbitrary concepts like guilt or shame he allowed himself to really examine them and consider what specifically had made him recoil. He supposed the primary thing had been that he was Kevin's creator, which the outside world would say was essentially the same as him being Kevin’s father. When he really thought about rather or not he agreed with that sentiment he found that he didn’t. It wasn't as though they shared DNA. He did feel a sense of ownership over Kevin, which he supposed only made sense, but he would not have called it a paternal feeling.  


He supposed the secondary issue was that, though Kevin’s body was mature, he had technically only been alive for a very short time. Kevin had been cloned from the healthy DNA of a previous experiment that had required humane uthanization following an experimental radiation exposure therapy which had caused him to grow fingers in his throat. He had had the memories of the previous experiment programmed into him so he remembered being much older but (by Sebastian’s estimate) it had been about three years since Kevin had been removed from his generating tank. Sebastian smile wistfully as he remembered Kevin’s sweet, confused expression upon gaining consciousness for the first time. There really was nothing like those first moments.  


The thought of Kevin’s perverse brand of innocence caused a familiar warm, pooling sensation in his stomach. Citizens of Desert Bluffs were not inherently sexual, the higher ups at Strex Corp though that it would be unwise to give them a means of reproducing on their own and so they were all genetically engineered to be infertile and asexual. They did have all the necessary equipment, a sort of fail safe just incase they decided they wanted to experiment with breeding down the road, but that equipment had to be activated via hormone therapy. He tried to imagine what Kevin look like sexually aroused...if he would even be able to process sexual arousal. That brought Sebastian to the third cause of his initial recoil, given Kevin’s deeply ingrained tendency towards unquestioning (and joyful) obedience consent was something of an issue. Or more accurately it was an issue that he couldn’t determine rather or not it was an issue.  


No matter how Kevin actually felt about any orders Sebastian gave him, he would feel an instinctive compulsion to obey, would in fact glean pleasure from the very act of obedience. He was, therefore, guaranteed to consent but Sebastian could not help but wonder if consent from someone who was physically incapable of resisting still counted as consent. While he had no doubt that he held a special place in Kevin’s heart, he regarded him with all the reverence and fawning adoration with which one should regard their creator, he had no way of knowing if that adoration would translate into sexual attraction once Kevin was rendered capable of such and he certainly had no desire to rape his creation. He supposed then that the only solution was to give Kevin the necessary hormone therapy, not initiate sexual contact and just watch Kevin's involuntary reactions to him. The body knows what it wants even if the mind doesn’t and if Kevin was not responsive to him he could just let it go. Though it had been some time since he’d been required to exercise it, he did not doubt his self control.  


The next day he spoke with his supervisor and (with a little creative phrasing) obtained permission to start Kevin on hormone therapy later that day, when Kevin was done with his broadcast. He gave a security officer orders to go and fetch Kevin at around noon and bring him to his private office. He felt it was only appropriate to administer Kevin’s first dose of synthetically produced sex hormones while the two of them were alone together. He wasn’t entirely sure how quickly Kevin’s body would react and, if there were any ill effects, he didn’t want anyone else to see. He told himself that this wasn’t so much out of respect for Kevin’s privacy (why should a creator have to respect the privacy of his creation?) as out of his own desire to avoid embarrassment. There was something else there too, he wanted Kevin’s soon-to-be newly awoken sexuality to be just between the two of them...to be only for him. He was proud of himself for not recoiling from those thoughts.  
Since he had nothing else to do that morning he found himself sitting at his desk for the next hour or so, fondling the syringe. He felt something bubbling up in his chest which he insisted to himself was not anxiety. He was, in fact, so wrapped up in how completely at ease he was with the whole situation that brisk yet politely subdued knock on his door startled him.  


“Yes?”  


“It’s me, sir...Kevin.”  


“Come on in Kevin.” He felt himself smile.  


Kevin entered closing the door behind him and stood at a respectful distance from Sebastian’s desk, hands clasped behind his back, the wide smile that seemed to be his resting expression firmly in place. Kevin’s mouth was not of unusual size but when he smiled it stretched wide enough to nearly touch his ears revealing two rows of pearly white daggers. Sebastian motioned to a chair and the radio host sat, eager to please as a well trained golden retriever, glancing only briefly at the syringe on the desk in front of him before returning his gaze to his creators face. He took just a moment to savor the admiration in Kevin’s eyes before he began.  


“Good morning Kevin.”  


“Good morning sir.”  


“How are you today?”  


“Oh, just swell sir!”  


“Good,” Sebastian flashed his most benevolent smile. “I’m glad to hear that. I just want to thank you again for your cooperation in all the testing we’ve been putting you through lately. You’ve been a model subject.” It was entirely pointless to commend Kevin on his cooperation, he did not have the option of being uncooperative, but he liked the way Kevin’s eyes lit up when he was praised.  


“Oh, no sir! Thank you.” Kevins already unnaturally wide smile stretched just little more. “There’s nothing that makes me happier than knowing I’ve been useful to you...and to Stex Corp.”  


“Great, just great.” Sebastian deliberately held the silence following that statement just a little longer than was comfortable, confident Kevin would not break it, then he picked an empty manila folder up off of his desk and stared into it thoughtfully before continuing. “ So, here’s the deal, Strex Corp has developed a new supplement and we’re just coming into the stage where we feel comfortable with human testing and based on your performances on all your evaluations over the past week I think you might be an ideal candidate.”  


“Oh,” Kevin giggled. “ I was starting to wonder what all that was about...not that I didn’t assume you had a good reason, since you always have a good reason for everything you do. I was just really hoping I’d get to find out what it was...not that I’d have had a problem with it if you decided not to tell me since I’m sure you’d have had a good reason for that too.” Sebastian decided not to start talking again just yet, he was enjoying Kevin’s adorable fumbling. “Would you mind if I asked what kind of supplement?...sir.”  


“You know I’ve never had any problem with you asking questions Kevin, and I’m happy to answer them...when I’m at liberty to do so.” Kevin looked confused, his smile faltered. “Do you know what the placebo effect is Kevin?”  


“No, sir...I’m sorry” Kevin’s face fell.  


“Not a problem,” Sebastian smiled comfortingly. “All you need to know is that I’m not at liberty to tell you what it does because if you knew it might skew the results...and we wouldn’t want that, would we Kevin?”  


“Oh, no sir, of course not.”  


“Of course not, and it would probably be best if you didn’t tell anyone else about this.”  


“Anyone, sir?”  


“Anyone except me. You see, this is a highly sensitive, very important project so my superiors have asked me to keep things as close to the chest as possible. Actually, one of the reasons I suggested you for the trial is because I was so sure you could be trusted.”  


“I’m...I’m honored you have so much faith in me sir.” The borderline ecstasy in Kevin’s tone left no room for doubt that he meant what he said. “When do you need me?”  


“Actually, I’ve obtained permission to begin immediately.”  


“Right now?”  


“Right now,” Sebastian mimicked Kevin’s excited tone. “In fact I’ve got the first dose right here, so if you wouldn't mind rolling up your sleeve we can get started.”  


Kevin instantly began fumbling at the button on his cuff but stilled when Sebastian knelt in front of him, seeing his creator prostrate before him seemed to cause something in his mind to seize up and a strange sort of tender confusion filled his face.  


“Here,” Sebastian took Kevin’s right wrist, pulling his hand towards him. “Let me.”  


He undid the tiny gold button on the cuff and slowly rolled Kevin’s sleeve up over his elbow. Placing his thumb in the tender crook of Kevin’s inner elbow he rubbed in a small circle, causing the muscle in Kevin’s upper arm to involuntarily twitch, before tapping to bring a vein to the surface. He cleaned the injection site with an alcohol swab and administered the injection, taking pride in Kevin’s lack of response to pain. Sebastian rolled Kevin’s sleeve back down and buttoned the cuff but didn't stand back up just yet. He knelt there holding Kevin’s hand palm up in his, running the index finger of his other hand up and down Kevin’s palm as though testing the responsiveness of the nerves. Glancing up he saw that Kevin was flushed but couldn’t be sure if it was the result of the injection, the heat in the room or the unfamiliar closeness of their proximity to each other. He looked directly into Kevin’s eyes, something he had never done before, for just a few seconds more before releasing his hand and rising.  


“Alright then.” Kevin started at the sound of his voice but quickly regained his composure and fixed his smile back into place. “I’m going to need you back here at the same time tomorrow to discuss what effects, if any, you’ve noticed and to administer the next dose. Until then just go about your day as usual and try your best to not even think about the trial, ok?”  


“Yes sir.” Kevin got to his feet a little unsteadily. “Thank you so, so much for this opportunity.”  


“Sure thing.” Sebastian smiled and shook Kevin’s hand. “Take care now.”  


After Kevin left Sebastian collapsed into his desk chair and picked up the empty syringe, looking at it wistfully. Since this had never been done before, he had no way of knowing how long it would take the hormones to take affect, until then it was the waiting game. He went about the remainder of his day with a sort of giddy energy.


	3. Dr. Vicario Has A Very Good Reason For Everything He Does.

Kevin R. Free is having the strangest thoughts today. He woke before the sun this morning, feeling oddly hot, from a strange dream that he couldn’t remember anything about except that it was unlike any dream he’s ever had before...not that he can remember many dreams that he’s had before...or even remember if he usually dreams...but, anyway, he’s pretty sure that the way he feels today is quite irregular. In the usual bright, colorful, fast paced whirring of images that fill his mind, he can’t help but notice that certain ones keep repeating. Like, for instance, right now he’s trying to read the script for his daily broadcast (he’s allowed to have it in front of him when he’s on air, but he likes to go over it before hand to make sure the on air read is as smooth as possible) but he can’t seem to get through it because every time he gets to a certain line he finds himself thinking about Dr. Vicario...not even all of Dr. Vicario, just Dr. Vicario’s lips...how he bits the lower one when he’s thinking or how his tongue sometimes darts out really fast to wet them between words when he’s talking. He’ll think about that for a few seconds and then he won’t be able to remember anything that he’s read and he’ll have to start all over again. Isn’t that silly?

Kevin supposes that Dr. Vicario is a perfectly good thing to be thinking about, Dr. Vicario is a great man after all, but Kevin doesn’t really see what any of that has to do with his mouth...though it is a perfectly good mouth...in fact one of the better mouths he’s seen. Maybe, Kevin speculates, he’s thinking about Dr. Vicario so much because he know’s he’ll be seeing him later that day to talk about the super secret, super important supplement trial that he certainly hasn’t been thinking about because Dr. Vicario told him not to. Maybe he’s thinking about Dr. Vicario because he really does need to talk to him because he really isn’t feeling very well now that he thinks about it. Kevin is very tired, possibly because he woke up a full hour before his alarm went off. He tried to fall back to sleep, really he did, but he was so hot and his heart was beating so fast and his stomach hurt and his whole body was so sensitive that just the feeling of his sheets brushing over his skin made him shiver. He felt something else too but he couldn’t think what to call it, like being hungry but...not. After he’d curled up into the fetal position and tucked his blankets very tightly around him, he’d almost managed to drift off again but then his alarm had gone off.

When he was in the shower he had found himself thinking about Dr. Vicario again and...things had happened, or rather almost happened, things that made him blush just to think about but he had no idea why. He isn’t worried though, of course not, because whatever it is he’s sure Dr. Vicario can fix it...unless it was supposed to be happening in which case he’s even less worried about it. For a second he almost wonders if maybe this is what that supplement was supposed to do, but then he remembers that he’s not supposed to be thinking about that. Why would they make a supplement that does THAT anyway? Not that THAT had been all that bad, it was actually kind of...pleasant, Kevin just didn’t see the need for THAT and knew better than to think that Dr. Vicario would give him unnecessary medicine. Dr. Vicario ALWAYS has VERY GOOD reasons for EVERYTHING he does.

Kevin is repeating that to himself under his breath and starting to feel too hot and a little sick again (with images of Dr. Vicario’s mouth...hands...eyes...hair playing over and over in his mind) when the alarm sounds indicating that they are about to go on the air. Kevin is proud of how quickly he composes himself and how he only sounds a little out of breath when he begins his morning broadcast. Kevn is, however, not proud of how he can’t keep his mind on his work, of how his hands shake and his mouth feels dry and especially not proud of how he stutters a few times and stumbles over a few words (something that had never, EVER happened to him before.) By the end of the broadcast he’s more frazzled than he’s been in a very long time...or, at least, than he can remember having been in a very long time. He wants to just go home and hide under the bed, something is very much not right and he wants more than anything just to get somewhere safe and warm and stay there until this whatever-it-is runs it course. He remembers that he’s supposed to see Dr. Vicario immediately after his broadcast and feels both dread and anticipation...and a third thing...something that claws dully at his insides like he’s swallowed a handful of rusty nails. It’s not entirely unpleasant.

He ducks into that bathroom, washes a little of the blood from the console off of his hands and splashes some of the rust tinted water that comes out of the faucet on his face. Kevin knows he shouldn’t dawdle, he was supposed to come RIGHT after the broadcast, but for some reason he really doesn’t want Dr.Vicario to see him like this. He feels silly for being self conscious, Dr. Vicario has literally seen inside him for Strex sake, but something about his current state feels...inappropriate. He needs to calm down.

After a few minutes of deep breathing and running the under sides of his wrists under ice cold water he feels considerably more presentable, and then ashamed at the thought that he’s probably kept Dr. Vicario waiting. Much to his relief, Dr. Vicario is not in his office when Kevin gets there. The door is open but he respectfully waits in the hallway. Five very long minutes later Dr. Vicario appears at the end of the hallway. He’s talking to an underling about something and so he doesn’t see Kevin at first but when the conversation wraps up he turns toward his office, sees Kevin and smiles. Kevin’s always loved to see Dr. Vicario smile but this time is different, this time it makes him feel a fluttering sensation like something squirming around inside him, which doesn’t make sense since his latest physical showed him to be completely free of parasites.

Kevin had sat down on the floor while he was waiting and before he can struggle to his feet Dr. Vicario is in front of him, offering him a hand. When he stands up he and Dr. Vicario are just a little too close to each other but he can’t back up because the wall is behind him. They stand like that, hand in hand, just a little too close, for what feels like a long time to Kevin and Dr. Vicario seems to be waiting for something, watching his face very closely and eagerly. The corner of the doctor’s “perfectly good mouth” twitches just slightly, a little micro-expression that Kevin can’t interpret, but then he lets go of Kevin’s hand and takes a step back and his professional demeanor slides back into place. For some reason Kevin takes comfort in this.

“If you don’t mind,” his voice reverberates inside Kevin more so than usual. “I’d like to move today's session to one of the exam rooms.”

“Whatever you think is best, sir.”

“Great,” Dr. Vicario gestures down the hall. “Right this way.”

The examining rooms are upstairs so they have to take the elevator. As always, Kevin walks next to Dr. Vicario but slightly behind and lets him enter the elevator first. Kevin has always though that Strex Corp has the loveliest elevators, granted they’re the only elevators he’s ever seen, but when something’s this pretty you don’t need a basis for comparison. Dr. Vicario stands in the far right corner and the elevators mirrored walls make it look like there’s another him right beside him, having two sets of honey brown eyes on two perfectly symmetrical faces looking back at him makes that thing in Kevin’s stomach start fluttering around again. Kevin wonders if maybe that thing is a new organ, he grows those sometimes.

Dr. Vicario looks confused (or as close to confused as someone so incredibly clever could possibly be) and Kevin realizes that he’s been starring. He quickly casts his eyes to the onyx floor but the damage is done.

“How’d you sleep last night?”

“Uh...not so well, sir.” Kevin has to bite back the reflexive ‘just swell’ that almost comes out if his mouth. He could never lie to Dr. Vicario. The other man gave him a pitying look which he took as encouragement to continue. “I kept having...dreams.”

“Hmmm...” Dr. Vicario regards him thoughtfully. “Were these troubling dreams?”

“I...I don’t know.” Kevin given an embarrassed little giggle. 

“You couldn’t remember them upon waking?”

Before Kevin can answer, the elevator reaches their intended floor. Kevin for some reason felt that they shouldn't talk in the hallway and so waited until Dr. Vicario has ushered him into an exam room to answer. 

“I could kind of...” he pauses and waits for the doctor to finish locking the door. 

“You could...?” Dr. Vicario leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the room and looked at Kevin raising his eyebrows in encouragement. Kevin was suddenly reminded of the wings of a crow...he is having the STRANGEST thoughts today. 

“I could remember little bits and pieces.” 

“And what were these ‘bits and pieces’?” 

“Uh...” another giggle “I remember one had something to do with...you...sir.” 

“Me?” Dr. Vicario smiles bemusedly and Kevin feels his face get hot, Dr. Vicario registers his discomfort immediately (he's so insightful.) “Kevin, I don’t take these sorts of things personally, I just need to keep an eye out for any possible side effects of the supplement. Are you sure you don’t remember any more?” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” Dr. Vicario walks over to the sink, washes his hands and begins pulling on a pair of gloves. He gestures to the bare, steel examination table and Kevin climbs up onto it. “Have there been any physical symptoms?” 

“I have noticed some...” his breath catches in his throat at the feeling of Dr. Vicario’s fingers against his pulse point, which is odd since he’s about as used to clinical poking and prodding as he is to blinking. “I have noticed some...swelling..between my legs and I think I’m running a fever.” 

Dr. Vicario’s brows knit briefly and he produces a thermometer from a near by drawer. 

“Open.” Kevin’s mouth opens automatically and Dr. Vicario slides the cold, glass thermometer past his razor sharp teeth and under his unnaturally long, thin tongue. There’s an awkward silence while they wait for the thermometer to take it’s reading. Dr. Vicario busies himself writing in a small notebook that he took out of the pocket of his lab coat and Kevin finds himself staring at the other mans lush, black curls and feeling his palms itch. He’s never felt the urge to pet another person before. His stomach sinks when he notices that Dr. Vicario is watching him intently out of the corner of his eye, as if waiting to see what he’ll do. Their eyes meet for just a moment but before it has a chance to get awkward Dr. Vicario reaches up and removes the thermometer. 

“You don’t appear to be running a fever. It’s probably just flushing, no cause for concern there.” 

“That’s a relief.” Kevin smiles. “I’d hate for you to have to stop the trial just because of me.” 

“Well, Kevin, you are very valuable to us so if you have any concerns about how the supplement is affecting you I expect you to tell me.” His expression is stern but softens as soon as Kevin nods. “Great, I’m just gonna go ahead and give you the next dose and you can be on your way.” 

“Ok...sir.” Kevin diligently begins rolling up his sleeve as Dr. Vicario produces a syringe and a packet of alcohol swabs from the pocket of his coat. 

“Can I ask you something?” He takes Kevin’s wrist in his left hand and begins cleaning the area with his right. 

“Anything, sir.” 

“What were you thinking when you were looking at me just then?” 

“Just when, sir?” 

“When you had the thermometer in your mouth, you appeared to be...contemplating something.” 

“Oh,” Kevin is fairly certain that this is the first time he’s even felt quite this embarrassed, but he can’t lie to Dr. Vicario. “...I was thinking about your hair...it’s just so...nice.” 

“Nice?” 

“It looks really...soft.” Kevin feels his throat start to tighten as some wholly unfamiliar feeling grips him. “I’m sorry, sir, I shouldn’t...” 

“No,” Dr. Vicario punctuates by sticking the needle into Kevin’s arm. “Kevin, anything you tell me is strictly confidential and it’s certainly not my job to judge you...You trust me, don’t you?” 

“Of course I do, sir, more than anyone!” Kevin nearly panics, terrified that he may have offended the doctor. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to...” 

“Stop apologising.” Dr. Vicario’s tone is firm and his eyes are locked on to Kevin’s. “You of all people have nothing to apologise for, your conduct is always exceptional, I only wish the others made my job as easy as you do.” 

“Thank you so much sir.” Kevin’s smile threatens to split his face in two. 

Dr. Vicario walks to the other side of the room to put the empty syringe in the hazardous materials container as Kevin rolls his sleeve back down and climbs down of off the table. 

“You know Kevin,” Dr. Vicario walks back over to stand in front of Kevin, despite the fact that he’s just slightly shorter he manages to somehow feel taller. He reaches up and places a hand on Kevin’s shoulder, gently rubbing. “You’re my favorite.” 

Those words break something inside Kevin but it feels good and happiness washes over him like an incoming tide. It’s too much, he feels like he’s going to cry and his knees are going to buckle out from under him and his heart is going to explode. All he can manage to do to give voice to the maelstrom raging inside him is to mutter a breathless, shaky “thank you sir” and then swallow hard to keep a sob from escaping. Dr. Vicario rewards him with an uncharacteristically warm smile. Kevin feels a genuine sense of loss when the other man removes his hand from his shoulder and walks over to unlock the door. 

Kevin is mildly disappointed that Dr. Vicario says goodbye to him outside of the room and walks off down the hallway instead of riding back up with him in the elevator, but that does nothing to dampen his spirits. He still feels a little feverish and a little queasy and a little of something else that he can’t quite identify, but he’s Dr. Vicario’s favorite so everything is absolutely perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I'm not dead...I wrote this when I should have been doing drawing homework.


	4. The Price of Success

Dr. Vicario feels pretty good about how today went, not all of today mind you, he started off the day hearing that his most recent research proposal has been rejected. He takes as a sign that he hadn’t brought his a-game to it. No matter though, he’s sure that if he turns on the charm during his next meeting with his superiors he can convince them of the error in judgement. Sebastian never wonders if he’ll get his way, he may wonder how he will or when he will but there’s never any doubt in his mind that he will. Doors are meant to be opened...even if you have to kick them down.  


He’s relieved that his...private project is off to a good start. Truth be told he had no idea how Kevin would react to the hormones and there was a very, very, slight chance of fatality. Sebastian didn’t get much sleep last night but he’s sure it’s not because he was worried...maybe he needs a new mattress? There was a brief window of time (around 2 a.m.) wherein he (ridiculously) thought that maybe this whole thing was a bad idea, he had even found himself (laughably) wondering if there would be any adverse effects if he simply didn’t continue. Luckily, seeing Kevin blush like a schoolgirl (combined with his lack of negative symptoms...of course) had been reward enough to convince him that he’d made the right decision.  


Make no mistake, just because this was a private project did not mean that Sebastian wasn’t going to treat it like the important research opportunity that it was. He had meticulously recorded the details of his earlier meeting with Kevin and had every intention of presenting his findings to his superiors once the experiment was complete, though he wasn’t quite sure how he was to determine completion in this particular instance (when Kevin had finished hormone therapy? when Kevin became sexually active? when he and Kevin...) Anyway, the point was that he had no intention of withholding anything that could be valuable to future research and development. He was still a scientist after all and was not about to let the fact that he was blending business and pleasure rob him of his intellectual purity. In fact, in the past, he’d found that he was most efficient when harmony was found between his baser urges and the drives of his higher mind. Yes, if there was one thing he was good at it was multitasking. There was no reason he couldn’t woo Kevin and study him at the same time, he was sure of this.  


He didn’t get back to his penthouse until very late that night. Exhausted, he found himself lying on the couch in the dark living room trying to work up the energy to prepare for bed. As his left hand trailed absently through his dark curls he found himself replaying Kevin’s comments about his hair from earlier in his mind and smiling in a way that felt wholly unnatural on a face more accustomed to combative sneers and sly smirks. In the back of his mind a cutting little voice remarked on how he was “going soft” and in response he gave his own hair a little tug to snap him out of his grogginess and got up and went to the bathroom. He took a moment to examine his face in the mirror, cringing at the slight crows feet at the corners of his eyes, the price of success he supposed. He told himself to stop being ridiculous, he was far better preserved than most men his age (and smarter and more charming in his own humble opinion) and besides, reflecting on mankind's helplessness in the face of the ceaseless march of time is for losers.  


After brushing, flossing and completing his rigorous nightly skin care ritual, Sebastian crawled between his black silk sheets and waited for sleep. Just as he was beginning to grow exasperated at the prospect of another night of tossing and turning he found his thought straying back to Kevin again. He couldn’t help but think that if he could just have Kevin to himself, if he could just have unlimited access to him so that he’d always be there to tell him how wonderful he was and gaze upon him as though he were a god robed in humble flesh, there was no way he could ever feel insecure again (not that he WAS insecure or had any reason to be.) Kevin would be better off as his anyway. For all his terrible, beautiful, ferocious strength, Kevin was hopelessly naive and even delicate in his own (incredibly charming) way. He would be lucky to have someone as shrewd as Sebastian doing his thinking for him. Someone so precious shouldn’t have to trouble himself with the crudities of the world.  


Indeed, the more Sebastian thought about it the more sure he became that he was doing Kevin a favor...and the more aroused he became. He reached into the drawer on his bedside table to retrieve the tube of hand lotion there (the good kind that was made from goat placenta), distributed a generous coating of it over his right hand, slid that hand beneath the covers to between his legs (he didn’t wear pajamas) and allowed himself to continue...musing on the subject. As a true scientist, he would be remiss to not consider that practicalities of what lie ahead. With as incredibly strong as Kevin was and as unfamiliar as even the vague concept of sex was to him their first coupling carried a very real risk of injury for Sebastian. Clearly Kevin would have to be bound during their first time.  


He allowed himself to imagine Kevin bound, splayed out for him on the examining table...no, not the examining table, here, in his own bed, completely naked, shivering and whimpering and confused. He made a mental note to borrow some four point restraints from the medical wing the next time he got the chance before his mind was filled with soothing hum of his impending orgasm. As the pace of his strokes picked up his thoughts descended into a collage of images and imagined sensations, running his hands over Kevin’s naked torso, savoring soft skin over wiry muscle, biting his long slender neck just a little too hard to make him reflexively growl. Of course Kevin would apologize immediately for any show of hostility and Sebastian would forgive him...and then show him just how good it felt to be forgiven.  


He imagined kissing Kevin, the coppery taste of the inside of his mouth, feeling those deliciously shark-like teeth scrape just slightly against his tongue, feeling Kevin moan into his mouth. He reached up and and trailed his hand through his hair again, imagining his own trimmed nails to be Kevins black talons raking against his scalp and bit his lip as he abruptly came undone. Even though he felt the same sense of disgust and self loathing he always did after masturbating (really, he’s supposed to be better than this), once he had taken a quick shower and changed the sheets, he crawled back into bed and drifted into a deep, easy sleep.


End file.
